2005 SUV Comparisons, Road Tests & Reviews

Two opposing automotive truths have emerged in the past decade. One: The sport/utility craze won't go away. Two: As long as SUVs are around, the most strident, politically correct tree huggers will complain that SUVs are wasteful of most things automotive, responsible for shaky oil reserves, global warming, and probably warts, too. Ford Motor Company chairman and scion William Clay Ford Jr. tried to bridge this dichotomy back in 2000, when he announced his company would improve its corporate-average fuel economy for SUVs 25 percent by 2005, a goal he later conceded Ford wouldn't meet.

Even though Ford fell short on this claim, its 2005 Escape Hybrid is a major piece of the plan to improve the automaker's truck-corporate-average fuel economy, and--of equal importance--its image. Ford has won the race to market with the world's first production hybrid gas/electric-powered sport/utility, having beat the Lexus RX 400h by about half a year. The Escape Hybrid was launched last fall just as oil-producing and exporting-country prices were breaching $50 per barrel. While automotive analysts say the average upper-middle-class suburbanite won't give up his Suburban until gas hits at least three bucks per gallon, there are a lot of drivers who'd like the versatility and utility of a smaller ride without having to devote so much income to keep it running.

The European solution to poor fuel economy in SUVs and other heavy vehicles is the diesel engine. Diesel fuel still generally costs less than gasoline in Europe--here, it's about the same price as premium unleaded (a reality not reflected in the EPA's average-annual-fuel-cost estimates). Diesels are popular in Europe because the EU's fuel-economy measurement gives more weight to highway mileage, where the engines gain much of their fuel-economy advantage, while gas/electric hybrids are big news in the U.S., because the Environmental Protection Agency's fuel-mileage loop favors the stop-and-go of city and rush-hour driving. Hybrids that shut off the piston engine at idle and rely on the battery powerpack pick up significant mpg numbers in these tests, generally higher city mpg ratings versus highway.

This won't keep automakers with a big presence (and turbodiesel production) in Europe from trying to sell diesels here. After 2007, when lower fuel-sulfur standards in this country help solve the diesel-particulate problem, expect to see more diesels trickle in, especially in trucks. The Jeep Liberty CDI is here now, just in time to face-off against conventionally powered competitors and alternatives like the Escape Hybrid. To make sure either is worth its sticker, they're competing for fuel thriftiness and cost-per-mile honors with one of the leading conventional four-cylinder SUVs in its class, the Toyota RAV4.

You must take a five-speed automatic when you order the CDI for the Jeep and a continuously variable automatic for the hybrid Ford, but the RAV is still offered with a manual gearbox, so the example in this test gets that fuel-saving advantage. All three were equipped with all- or four-wheel drive, the former for the Escape and RAV4, the latter for the Liberty. The Liberty is the one true off-roader here. Its turbodiesel felt strongest during off-road testing, a dirt-and-sand exercise that was soft-road enough to keep the Ford and Toyota from getting hung up. It's when climbing short hills and puttering around in the muck that the turbodiesel's stump-pulling torque feels so right for such a vehicle.